172 THE ANTARCTIC. 



be inferred from the latitude of Bransfield Straits. The 

 names of the larger islands beginning at the east are : 

 Joinville Island, Louis-Philippe Land, Trinity Land — 

 reducible to a group of smaller islands if the latest 

 accounts by Larsen are accepted — and Palmer's Land. 

 Dallmann's discoveries had already established the 

 separation between Palmer's Land and Graham's Land. 

 It is not improbable that later voyages will prove Palmer's 

 Land also to be another group of islands. The whole 

 island chain is separated in the south from Graham's 

 Land by comparatively broad straits, whose western end, 

 Bismarck Straits, fifteen miles wide, was explored by 

 Dallmann in 1874. The apparently far broader eastern 

 end was seen by Larsen, but has hitherto received no 

 name. 



It is convenient to begin the examination of the 

 islands of the Dirk Gerritz Archipelago with Joinville 

 Island as the most northerly and easterly. Its length 

 between the eastern point, Cape Moody, longitude about 

 55° 5' W-> and the western, Cape Kinness, longitude close 

 upon 56° 45' W., is fifty-five miles in round numbers, 

 while the extreme northern point, Point des Francois is 

 in latitude 62° 59/ S., and the southern, not yet named, 

 in latitude 63° 22' S. From the Point des Francois the 

 coast extends E.S.E. as far as Cape Fitzroy, a striking 

 landmark, broken into just before the cape by a deep 

 bay, which impressed Ross as very suitable for a harbour. 

 From Cape Fitzroy the coast takes a south-easterly 

 direction to Cape Moody, and then in a shallow curve 

 sweeps round the foot of Mount Percy, the greatest 

 elevation on the island. From Cape Alexander the 

 trend is to the west, Gibson Bay, which is deep, breaking 

 the coast line. Cape Kinness, as stated previously, forms 

 the western point. It is joined to the main island by a 

 low and narrow isthmus which was not observed by 

 Dumont d'Urville ; he consequently set down the cape 



